


A Timely Rescue

by Chocolatequeen



Series: The Doctor's Wife [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, Episode Fix-It: s02e13 Doomsday, F/M, Fluff, Forgiveness, Married Couple, Romance, Time Travel, but it is particularly applicable here, which I realise applies to pretty much every Doctor Who story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-22 01:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6066201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolatequeen/pseuds/Chocolatequeen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor has been travelling alone since leaving Rose Tyler in the alley with her idiot boyfriend. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Rose are sending the Daleks and Cybermen back into the Void. Ignoring what the Doctor wants, the TARDIS takes him to Canary Wharf where he gets the surprise of his lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt for a Doomsday fixit with Nine. 
> 
> This is the first of three prompts that I’ve strung together to make a single fic. The third prompt stipulated that the Doctor and Rose already be in a relationship, and after a bit of consideration, I decided to make this a sequel to Tokens of His Affection. I mentioned at the end of Tokens that Doomsday doesn’t happen in that ‘verse--well, now you know how they avoided it.

  _Torchwood, July 9, 2007_

Rose stared at her husband in shock. “I’m supposed to go.”

The muscle in the Doctor’s jaw twitched. “Yeah.”

Rose jumped when his magnaclamp hit the floor with a loud clang, but she didn’t let it distract her from the conversation she couldn’t believe they were having. “To another world, and then it gets sealed off.”

“Yeah.” The Doctor barely looked at her, spinning around and running over to a computer to hide his face.

But Rose knew exactly how he felt; she could feel his anguish over their bond. “Forever.” He flinched when she pronounced the word she’d recently used when he’d asked, in a romantic moment, how long she was going to stay with him. Rose shook her head. “That’s not going to happen.”

A loud crash rattled the building, breaking up the tableau that had formed as the Doctor and Rose talked.

“We haven’t got time to argue,” Pete said brusquely as he strode toward the wall. “The plan works. We’re going.” He spun around and pointed at Jackie and Rose. “You too. All of us.”

Rose’s jaw dropped. He’d rejected her when she tried to call him Dad, and now he thought he could tell her what to do? “No, I’m not leaving him,” she declared.

Her mum looked at her, then at Pete. “I’m not going without her.”

Fear and anger were etched in every line on Pete’s face, and for a moment, Rose felt a bit of sympathy for him. “Oh, my God. We’re going!” he told Jackie.

Rose could see her mum’s back stiffen, and despite the serious situation, she had to hide a grin. Pete must have forgotten what it was like to argue with Jackie.

“I’ve had twenty years without you, so button it. I’m not leaving her.”

The reality of the situation suddenly occurred to Rose. This was her mum’s last chance to be with the man she loved. “You’ve got to,” she said, putting a hand on her elbow.

Jackie spun around, sparks in her eyes. “Well, that’s tough.”

“Mum.” Rose swallowed and brought her mum’s hand to her heart. “You can’t give up this chance when I’m never gonna come back to London to stay. I lived with you for nineteen years, but my home is with the Doctor now.” Her mum’s eyes dropped to her wedding band, then met her eyes again. “He does so much, Mum—for the whole stupid planet and every planet out there.”

Rose felt a shiver of something over her bond with the Doctor, and she focused on it as she finished talking to her mum. “He does it alone, Mum. But not anymore, because he is not sending me away without asking,” she concluded, understanding the Doctor’s intent just in time to spin around and grab the disk from him before he could put it around her neck.

The Doctor’s hand hung empty in the air. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he had to wet his lips before he spoke. “Rose—”

She ignored him, too angry to speak coherently. Instead, she tossed the disk away and looked over her shoulder at Pete. “Go.” He nodded and hit the yellow button on his chest, and the four of them disappeared.

“I can’t keep you safe here!” the Doctor shouted as soon as they were gone.

The wild panic in his eyes allayed some, but not all of Rose’s anger. “An’ I can’t keep you safe from there!” she retorted. “I vowed twelve times that I would never leave you. Now.” She lifted her chin. “What do we need to do?”

_London, March 5, 2005_

The Doctor rolled his eyes when Rose jogged over to comfort her idiot boyfriend, cowering in the alley. Ricky would never appreciate her full value. Rose Tyler would be the perfect companion, but he hesitated to ask such a young human girl to risk being tainted by the danger that followed him wherever he went.

But the habitual appeal to her sense of adventure escaped his lips before he realised it. “Nestene Consciousness?” he snapped his fingers. “Easy.”

Rose spun around and looked at him, her eyebrows raised. “You were useless in there. You’d be dead if it wasn’t for me,” she told him, pointing to herself proudly.

The Doctor nodded slightly. “Yes, I would. Thank you,” he acknowledged, then shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Right then, I’ll be off.” He drew in a breath and managed to stammer through his invitation. Rose might deserve better than him, but he wanted her with him anyway. “Unless, er, I don’t know, you could come with me.” Her smile gave him some confidence. “This box isn’t just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge.”

But Ricky the Idiot spoke up before Rose could answer. “Don’t. He’s an alien,” he said, pointing at the Doctor. “He’s a thing.”

The Doctor glowered at the human boy. “He’s not invited.” He looked back at Rose, trying not to appear desperate. “What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere,” he offered, trying to appeal to the need for a bigger life he’d sensed in her.

Rose bit her lip and rocked back and forth on her feet. “Is it always this dangerous?”

The Doctor nodded curtly; he wouldn’t lie to her. “Yeah.”

For a brief moment, he thought she would say yes. Then Ricky got up on his knees and wrapped his arms around her waist, and Rose deflated, patting her boyfriend on the back.

“Yeah, I can’t. I’ve er,” she shrugged her shoulders and pointed in the general direction of her flat. “I’ve got to go and find my mum and someone’s got to look after this stupid lump, so.”

The Doctor had to swallow hard to choke back the regret. “Okay,” he said softly. Rose’s eyes widened, and he thought maybe he hadn’t hidden his longing as well as he’d thought. “See you around.” He slipped back inside the TARDIS and closed the door behind him before he could do something ridiculous, like beg a teenage girl to come with him.

After leaving Rose, the time senses that had briefly come back to life in her presence seemed dead again. Desperate to feel _something,_ the Doctor chased down fixed points, visiting Krakatoa just before it erupted, stowing away on the _Titanic,_ even watching Kennedy’s assassination. Each time, sensation returned for a while, but quickly faded once the event passed.

The TARDIS was getting more fed up with him with each trip. She made no attempts to hide her disapproval of the way he was skating the edges of the laws of Time—one wrong step in any of those moments could bring the Reapers crashing down on them, and she knew it just as well as he did.

The Doctor ignored her protests, so eventually, she decided to take matters into her own hands. There was someplace he needed to be, and if he wouldn’t go there, she would take him there.

“What are you doing?” the Doctor asked his ship when she sent him into flight without his permission.

She refused to answer until she landed with a hard thud. _You need to be here,_ she told him bluntly.

“Where is here?” The Doctor checked the navigation information. “Canary Wharf in July of 2007? What’s so important about here?”

But he could feel it as soon as he stepped out of his ship into a sterile white staircase. Someone had opened a breach in the walls between the worlds. Pulling out his sonic, he scanned and took the stairs going up.

“Online and locked,” a computerised voice announced as the Doctor approached the room the breach was in.

He stepped inside and took the scene in in an instant. “Oi, what’s going on here?”

A pretty boy in pinstripes looked up at him, a jolt of recognition and relief in his eyes. “Grab Rose,” he ordered, nodding at the blonde girl who was just barely hanging onto a lever.

The Doctor lunged forward and grabbed her hand just as her fingers slipped, and she smiled up at him. This time it was his turn to feel a jolt of recognition. “Rose?” It was obviously her, even though she did look a few years older than she had when he’d left her behind in the alley a month ago.

“Doctor!” she cried happily.

The breach in the wall closed and weaved itself together. The Doctor crossed his arms and glared when the other man let go of the clamp he’d been hanging onto, ran across the room, and pulled Rose into a tight embrace. “I thought I’d lost you,” he said, his voice rough.

Rose pulled back and stroked his face gently. “Never. I told you; I’m never gonna leave you.” Pretty Boy sighed and leaned into her caress, then—to the Doctor’s surprise—he bent down to kiss her gently.

It was in the middle of the kiss that the Doctor realised who the other man was. “Oh, I don’t believe it,” he groaned loudly, not caring if he was interrupting the other man’s—well, future him’s—kiss with Rose. “This is what I regenerate into?”

The couple parted, and the Doctor’s future self glared at him while Rose giggled. “Yep! This is the next you, Doctor.”

“Fantastic,” the Doctor groaned.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt for this chapter was: timey wimey 9/Rose/10, amnesia 10, confused 9 and an exasperated Rose, during the time 9 left Rose before “it also travels in time,” after au doomsday with established 10/Rose.

The tenth Doctor glared at his past self and opened his mouth to give an acerbic comment of the big ears and leather look. But his gaze landed on Rose for a moment, and he noticed lines around her mouth that he hadn’t spotted earlier.

Immediately, his own irritation was forgotten. “Yes, you can laugh at my fashion choices and hair style later,” he said brusquely. “Where’s your TARDIS? I want to get Rose to the infirmary.”

“I’m fine,” Rose said at the same time as the younger Doctor jerked a thumb over his shoulder and said, “It’s this way.”

The Doctor brushed his knuckles over Rose’s cheekbone. “You’re not fine, love,” he countered softly. He held her gaze until she let go of the pretence. “Is it your shoulders?” he guessed, remembering how the suction had stretched her body out.

“And my back,” she admitted. “But don’t you dare feel guilty,” she ordered, some of her earlier anger returning to her eyes. “I’m right where I want to be.”

“Come on,” the younger Doctor offered. “She’s just down a flight of stairs.”

The Doctor could feel his past self’s confusion, and he knew they’d have to explain a few things to him—after figuring out where exactly he was in his own timeline. For now, he took Rose’s hand and followed the leather clad Doctor out of the room that would haunt his dreams.

The younger Doctor had thought he’d received all the surprises possible, but when the TARDIS chimed joyfully upon Rose Tyler’s entrance, he was proven wrong. “She’s never been this happy to see anyone but me before,” he said, scratching at his head.

Rose let go of the Doctor’s hand and rested it on a coral strut. “Oh, I’m happy to see you too, dear,” she whispered.

The pinstriped Doctor smiled, but there was something in his eyes that his counterpart thought looked like awe tinged with fear. “Rose and the TARDIS have a very special relationship,” he explained, and the Doctor knew that whatever that meant, he would have to live through it to understand.

To the surprise of one Doctor and the satisfaction of the other, the TARDIS moved the infirmary to just off the console room. The Doctor watched his future self shrug off his coat and pull open a drawer filled with medical instruments, noting his familiarity with the room. “I take it you didn’t change the design with this regeneration, then.”

“Do you do that?” Rose interjected.

The older Doctor pulled a sonic wand out of the drawer. “Sometimes. Up on the table, love.”

_And that’s twice he’s called her that._ The Doctor pushed that thought aside and finally asked the question that had been nagging at him since he’d recognised himself in that sterile, white room. “But how are you with me?” he asked Rose. “I asked you if you wanted to travel with me, and you said no.”

“Well, that answers that question,” the older Doctor muttered.

“Doctor, when did you see me last?” Rose asked quietly as the older Doctor waved the device in slow passes over her shoulders and upper back.

“A month ago, for me,” he said. “You refused to come with me, said you had to stay with Ricky.”

Between the annoyance that flickered in her eyes and a smirk playing on the older Doctor’s mouth, the Doctor guessed his epithet for the idiot never wore off. “His name’s Mickey,” Rose said tersely. “An’ since he just helped save the world, maybe you could try to remember it.”

The Doctor looked down and scuffed the toe of his boat against the deck. “Yes, Rose,” he mumbled.

Rose shook her head at her first Doctor. So much like the Doctor she’d married, and yet so different. Her husband tensed, and she reached behind her back for his hand. _Always my Doctor,_ she promised.

The younger Doctor’s eyes widened. “You’re… but…” He looked between the Doctor and Rose. “She’s human!”

“And you’ve only spent a handful of hours with her, and you already think she’s the best thing to ever happen to you,” the Doctor countered. “Are you really surprised that feeling will only grow stronger as you get to know her?”

“But how is that even possible?”

Rose wrinkled her brow, then whispered, “Ahhh,” when she realised the younger Doctor had picked up on the telepathic communication and knew what that meant.

Her husband walked around the table to stand in between Rose and her first Doctor. “Well… let’s just say Rose does something that makes her more telepathically open than most humans.”

“That makes absolutely no sense,” the younger Doctor stated flatly.

She hopped off the table and crossed the floor to the baffled Time Lord. “But it happens,” she told him, not wanting to get into the ways Bad Wolf had changed her. “And to make sure it still happens, I think we need to straighten out some timelines. It sounds like you left me in London and never went back for me?”

He frowned. “Well, you said no.”

Rose chuckled. “And I regretted it as soon as you shut the door,” she promised.

Hope filled his ice-blue eyes. “You did?”

“Yep. So now—as soon as we leave—you need to go back and get me.” She smiled up at him, and the tip of her pink tongue showed through her teeth. “Just don’t forget to tell me that she also travels in time.”

“Yes, well we should be off now,” the older Doctor said loudly. “Timelines to maintain and all that.”

Rose bit her lip and looked between her two Doctors. The Doctor she’d married was frowning—no, glaring at his younger self as he shoved his arms back into the sleeves of his coat. Now that the pain and adrenaline from their near miss had worn off, Rose’s earlier anger over his attempt to send her away returned, and she ignored his obvious jealousy.

Her first Doctor looked at her like she held all the secrets to the universe, and she couldn’t resist the yearning in his eyes. In a quick motion, she grabbed his lapels and pulled him down as she pushed herself up on her toes. His big hands landed on her waist as soon as their lips met, and Rose melted into his kiss.

The Doctor tilted his head and deepened their kiss, and Rose slid her hands up to the back of his neck. He sucked her top lip in between his own, and she swayed into him and sighed.

“Oi!”

The older Doctor’s indignant cry broke through the haze of passion, and Rose reluctantly pulled back from one Doctor’s kiss to look at the other.

He had his arms crossed over his chest and was tapping one foot in a quick rhythm. “That’s my wife you’re kissing.”

The younger Doctor looked over at him, one eyebrow raised in a lazy smirk. “Which makes her my wife,” he pointed out, leaving the other Doctor to bluster indignantly.

Rose smiled up at him and rubbed her thumb along his jaw. “I love you,” she vowed, and the awe in his eyes broke her heart.

“Even though I’m not pretty like that one?”

She pulled him down so she could whisper in his ear. “You’re the one I fell in love with,” she told him, adding the soft, chiming syllables of his real name to the end of her declaration.

His blue eyes slid shut and he pressed his forehead to hers. For one timeless moment, they stood together, sharing what had been and what would be.

Then the Doctor’s hands abruptly fell away from her waist and he took a step back from her. “You should go,” he said. “After all, I’ve got someplace to be.”

“Finally,” his older self muttered, gesturing for Rose to leave the room first. Instead of following her, he turned to face the younger Doctor. “You’ll need to hide these memories,” he said in a low voice. “I don’t remember any of this, and truthfully…” He looked over his shoulder to where they could just barely see Rose, standing near the outside doors. “There are things I’d rather not have rewritten.”

“I know the laws of Time as well as you,” the Doctor retorted. “I’ll take care of it as soon as we’re in the Vortex. The TARDIS will give me enough of a hint to go back and pick up Rose.” He levelled a gaze at his older self. “You just make sure you continue to deserve her.”

Blue eyes held brown, until both Doctors were satisfied they understood each other.

The Doctor nodded quickly, then stepped around his future self to jog into the console room. A quick glance at the monitor confirmed that Torchwood was crawling with agents, so the Doctors flew the TARDIS together down into the basement in the middle of the night to avoid detection.

Watching Rose walk hand in hand out of his TARDIS with the Doctor she was married to was one of the hardest things the Doctor had ever done—and one of the easiest. On one hand, he had no idea how much he would have to live through before he gained that kind of intimacy with Rose Tyler, but he knew himself well enough to know it didn’t happen overnight. Right now, the wait seemed interminable, and he wanted to skip over the time in between and just take her for himself.

On the other hand, he could go on in this life, in this regeneration, knowing that life with Rose was waiting for him. The TARDIS chimed, and the Doctor sighed. “Yes, I know I need to forget, but surely something will remain—some feeling that there’s something good just around the corner.”

She hummed her reassurance, and the Doctor smiled. “Right them. Let’s do this,” he said, and began the process of hiding his own memories.

oOoOoOoOo

The Doctor blinked. The TARDIS was in flight, directing herself as she frankly had a habit of doing. He frowned when he looked down at the coordinates. “What are you doing, old girl?” he muttered. “We asked her to come with us, and she said no.”

The TARDIS hummed and flashed the temporal navigation panel at him, and a slow smile spread across the Doctor’s face. “But then, I did forget to tell her something, didn’t I?”

The ship landed with a gentle thud, just ten seconds after he’d left. The Doctor took a deep breath, then pushed open the door. Rose had walked to the end of the alley, and a knot lodged in his stomach at the thought that he’d almost missed her.

Rose stared at the Doctor with eyes he dared to believe were hopeful, and he flashed her a grin. “By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This last chapter fills a prompt for TenxRose hurt/comfort, with an argument or a misunderstanding of some kind and them already in an established relationship.

The Doctor could feel Rose’s growing anger as he sent the TARDIS back into the Vortex, and he started babbling to delay the inevitable fight. “Well, that was definitely interesting. I don’t remember that happening at all.” He glanced at the time rotor. “It does explain why you were so determined to take us to all those planets where we’d have to get married, though.”

Rose’s surprise reached him over the bond, and he realised he’d never actually mentioned that before. “The TARDIS arranged for us to get married?” she asked.

“I don’t know if I’d say arranged…” The Doctor rubbed at the back of his neck. “Sent us into situations where it would be likely to happen? Created a conducive atmosphere?”

“Right. So she set us up.”

A furrow appeared in the middle of Rose’s forehead, and the Doctor raked his hand through his hair. “On eleven blind dates, apparently. Welllll, not really blind.” He cocked his head, considering. “Not really dates, either, though I suppose you could call a wedding a date. Bit more serious than a date, though.”

Rose turned around and walked away from him without a word. The Doctor stared at her back for a long moment, then chased down the corridor after her, catching up with her just as she was opening a door. He followed her through it, and when he realised what room she’d asked the TARDIS for, all the wind was knocked out of him. They were in Rose’s old bedroom—the one she hadn’t slept in since their last wedding, six months before.

“What… why did you come here?” he asked, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Rose didn’t look at him as she started stripping off, tossing the blue jumper onto the bed and letting her black trousers fall onto the floor. “I think it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”

His stomach roiled at the implication. “You’re not moving back in here.”

Rose looked at him over her shoulder, and the Doctor realised his panic had made that come out like an order.

“I mean,” he amended, “why do you want to move back in here?”

She pulled on a dressing gown and went into the loo. The Doctor followed and watched as she washed her makeup off.

When her face was clean, she carefully folded up the flannel, then turned around to meet his gaze. “Well. It doesn’t seem like you actually want to be married.”

The Doctor recoiled as if she’d actually punched him in the gut. A sharp gasp escaped his mouth, then he sealed his lips shut and swallowed hard until he thought he had his emotions under enough control to keep his voice from cracking.

“Could we—” A lump rose in his throat, and he swallowed again. “Could we talk about this somewhere else?” He could sense Rose’s intent to refuse, and he hurried on. “Not our room. It can be someplace… neutral.” And oh, didn’t it hurt to know Rose didn’t consider the bedroom they shared to be neutral territory.

Some of the fight drained out of her, but she didn’t look calmer—she looked tired. “If you want,” she said, her voice toneless. “Library?”

The Doctor nodded and followed her out of the room. The whole way to the library, his mind worked frantically, trying to figure out why she would say a thing like that. He knew she was upset with him for trying to send her to Pete’s World without asking or telling her, but surely…

Rose sat down on the couch and crossed her arms in front of her, tucking her hands under her elbows. The Doctor took a deep breath and crouched in front of her, willing to take a penitent posture if it would convince her to forgive him. He wished he could take her hands, but he settled for resting one of his on her knee.

“Why would you say that?”

Her disbelieving eye roll hurt almost as much as her words. “Oh, let’s see,” she bit out. “Maybe because you just told me you only married me because our ship coerced you into it?”

“Not the last time!” he argued. “Remember what I said—one more wedding where we both knew we meant it.”

“Yeah, and then you tried to send me away!”

_And there it is._ The Doctor had been trying to avoid Rose’s emotions over the bond, but her feeling utter betrayal cut through him.

Rose shifted her gaze to the fireplace. “That doesn’t really make a strong case for you wanting a wife,” she said quietly.

The Doctor’s hearts raced. “Rose, I—”

She cut him off. “Is that what’s going to happen every time we’re in serious danger? Will I always have to be on my guard against whatever ridiculous scheme you’ve come up with to send me away for my own good?”

He tapped his fingers rapidly against her knee. “If the TARDIS hadn’t brought the past me to Torchwood, you would have been lost to the Void.”

“And if I’d let you have your way, I’d have been separated from you, forever.” Her lips thinned. “Doctor, you have to respect my right to make my own choices about my life.”

He sagged onto the floor. “Your safety will always be my first priority.”

“Then we’ve got a problem, because if my choices are to be safe, or be with you, I will choose to be with you every time.”

“I am not worth your life,” he said through gritted teeth.

“You are to me!” Rose’s face was red, and her voice was sharper than he’d ever heard it. “And—as you seem to have trouble grasping—this is my life, so it’s my choice that matters. You would hate it if someone kept making decisions for you, so why are you doing it to me?”

The Doctor cast about for another argument, but it was difficult when he had the nagging feeling that Rose was right.

“You’re right,” he said finally, but that only relieved the smallest amount of hurt on her part. “But Rose, sending you away was never about not wanting you.” He reached up and took her hand. “It was about not wanting to live in a world where you didn’t exist.”

Rose held her Doctor’s gaze for a long moment, searching for some proof that he was sincere. She could tell over the bond that he meant what he said, but it was still human nature for her to look for visible cues. His entire posture was remorseful, from his position on the floor in front of her to his bowed head and the eyes that looked up to meet her gaze.

Being sorry for this time wasn’t enough, though. “You won’t do it again?”

“I won’t do something that would separate us forever,” he said. “Not without your permission, at least.” He smiled wryly. “I think we both know it’s asking too much to hope I won’t be overprotective. But I’ll try not to be so…”

“High-handed?” Rose suggested when he floundered for a word.

The Doctor winced. “Is that what it was?”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “Trying to send me to a parallel world when I’d already said I didn’t want to go, because you thought you knew what was best for me?” He blushed and tugged on his ear. “Yeah, that’s high-handed.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then looked up at her. “Will you forgive me?” he asked, his voice soft.

Until he spoke those words, Rose’s anger had blinded her to the emotions he was feeling. But now they came through clearly, and she realised with a start that his fear of losing her was almost as strong as it had been when the Void had been pulling her in.

Her throat closed up; she had done this, with her impetuous announcement that she was moving back into her old room. She’d been angry, and she’d meant it at the time, but she hadn’t realised how much it would hurt him.

“Of course, Doctor,” she said, trying to imbue the words with as much reassurance as possible.

His brows drew together and he bit his lip. “I’m sorry, Rose.”

Her heart turned over when she realised he didn’t believe her. Rose reached for his hands and tugged until he moved up onto the couch beside her. Forgoing verbal conversation, she reached for the bond, knowing that would calm his insecurities more than anything.

_Doctor, I promised to love you until death do us part—not until the first time you really made me angry._ She cradled his face between her hands. _I was hurt, but I was never gonna leave you. I’m so sorry I made you think I would._

When his shoulders relaxed and the furrow in his brow smoothed out, Rose stroked his sideburns then moved her hands so they were covering his hearts. “I love you, Doctor.”

The Doctor smiled finally and reached out to push a strand of hair back over her ear. Rose leaned closer to him and slid one hand up to the nape of his neck, waiting for his kiss.

His lips brushed over her forehead first. “I love you, too, Rose Tyler.” He kissed her cheek next. “My love.” Her other cheek, closer to her mouth this time. “My wife.”

Finally, his lips met hers, moving over them tenderly. When Rose sighed against his lips and her hand shifted up into his hair, the Doctor wrapped a hand around her waist and tugged her into his lap. He pulled out of the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers, panting slightly as emotion took over.

“No matter how much of an idiot I am—and sadly, Rose, I can guarantee this won’t be the last time—never doubt how much I love you.”

“I won’t, Doctor.” Rose turned her head and kissed his temple. “I promise I won’t.”

oOoOoOoOo

The Doctor circled the console nervously the next morning, checking and double-checking the coordinates. He had to get this right.

“Where are we going?” Rose asked.

He shook his head. “It’s a surprise,” he told her, feeling the weight of the rest of the surprise in his coat pocket. He took a breath and pulled the dematerialisation lever, and a minute later, the TARDIS landed gently on an alien world.

Rose hopped off the jump seat, but before she could start for the door, the Doctor snagged her hand. “Let me make sure I got us to the right place first,” he requested. She raised an eyebrow, but nodded and leaned against the console. The Doctor let out a breath when he examined their current coordinates—exactly where he wanted to be.

“All right,” he said, pointing to the door. “Ladies first.”

She smiled and skipped to the door, letting warm sunshine in when she opened it. Two steps out, she stopped, and he could feel her surprise over the bond.

He shut the TARDIS doors behind them and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Do you know where we are?” he whispered in her ear.

“It looks like the planet where we had our first wedding.”

“Fasway,” the Doctor confirmed. He reached into his pocket and retrieved their bonding bracelets. “You’ll want to put this on, so we don’t get arrested this time.”

Rose slipped the bracelet onto her left wrist, then smiled up at him, a hint of tongue peeking out. “No indecent smiling this time?”

The Doctor kissed her quickly. “Hmmm, that smile is still tempting, even when you’re wearing the bracelet,” he murmured.

She giggled. “So, why here?”

“Do you remember what the elder said, after we went through their short ceremony?”

Rose tipped her head back and pursed her lips. “Um… something about our lives being joined forever.”

“Your lives and souls are now entwined,” the Doctor quoted. He took a deep breath and ran a finger over her bracelet. “I was yours from the moment I put this on your wrist,” he confessed.

She shook her head. “Hmmm… I don’t think so.” Before he could argue, she took the bracelet he still held and pushed it onto his left wrist. “I think you were mine from the moment I put this on _your_ wrist.” She lifted her hand and smiled shyly. “I was yours from the moment you put this on _mine_.”

The Doctor’s hearts beat erratically for a moment. Even after six months, it was still incredible to him that Rose loved him. He tugged her close with a hand on her waist. “You’re wrong,” he whispered as he leaned down to kiss her. “I was yours from the moment I took your hand and whispered, ‘Run.’”


End file.
